SoS 10/10/20
Back in the Matchbox in the city, we’ve had a bucketload of rain. (Actually we had it on the coast too. How do folk in the UK cope with days of rain? Yikes!) But in the one hour of sunshine yesterday afternoon, and between planting lots of summer annuals, I took a few pics.
I was fascinated by this first one. I can’t remember noticing spring flowers on my Japanese Maples before. The bees were feeding on them after the rain. Everything was so sodden and the bees must have been so hungry! It was a first for me to see such a thing in the maples. The previous night, I had watched David Attenborough’s Life on Our Planet and have been puzzling over how to grow the insect species in my gardens. To see the bees in the maples was special.
Secondly, the Solomon’s Seal grew and grew whilst it rained and is a lovely upright phalanx along the back path
Thirdly, the Viburnum Plicatum blossomed during the rain. This is so structural, so striking and it exactly fulfils its purpose in the corner in which it was planted. I was surprised the bees preferred the maples though.
Fourthly, these are the first ever flowers on the evergreen clematis, Clematis Paniculata Purity. I am happy with its understated elegance.
Fifthly and Sixthly, the tulips because they’re gorgeous and have coped with lack of attention, rain bucketing down, winds and the blackbirds scooping all the soil out around the bulbs.
I love the colour combination in my white garden and the Orange Balloon bulbs are troopers (the whites and maroony-blacks are Super Parrots).
And to finish the tour this weekend, go to The Propagator and indulge!
It’s nice to see tulip pictures again… It reminds me of last spring of course. The black and the white parrot ones are gorgeous.
I’ll be ordering more parrots when the catalogues come out, Fred. But I’ve truly fallen in love with Orange Balloon.
Lovely bearded tulips……and the others too. My Solomon’s Seal has escaped the grubs this year so is starting to turn yellow. I like the way you have used it to line your path, mine is in a big clump in a flowerbed but still attractive.
This gives me hope for future tulips, Granny. I was all prepared to throw in the towel, but maybe it’s not so bad after all. Can’t wait to see what you all plant.
I’m not sure how we Brits cope with the rain but essentially we have no choice. It rarely rains for days on end so that’s something. Your photos are beautiful and show how useful the rain can be – those plants look so fresh!
It’s being waterlogged that bugs me, especially in spring, Katharine. We squelch everywhere, the rivers are chokkers and flowing silt into the sea and my spring garden lasted 10 days before it blew out. In our big garden, I’m now looking at a vast expanse of green. I’ll try and lift it along with annuals for colour and shall try and find more greys and variegations to define it more. But truly, we are DONE with rain. We have become creatures of the dry…
Beautiful tulips!
I’ve had such bad luck with tulips through the years, Barbara but this year they have come up trumps (I HATE that word!!!!) for me.
We have had two dry days in about 2 weeks , most nights we have had rain so ground sodden so can’t even cut the grass, fortunately Jeff had cut it beore this bad wet spell. I have to keep on emptying the trays with my cuttings in them as they are getting waterlogged. We just get used to it and garden on the days when the weather is ok . Your garden looks lovely Prue.
I think our problem is that we are so used to dry weather… we have seriously wet winters one year in five and this is it. I
m so over it!
i do love a tulip. on sunday i made a start on planting the hundreds i foolishly bought. could be a while before i complete the process….
Hi Mr.P. Hundreds? OMG – can’t wait to see your spring!! Mine are now just finishing and in all I think I had about 18!!!!! They were so successful that I think I will order many more in February.
So lovely to see Tulips, I’ve just started planting mine and I love your Clematis
Good morning, my time! There is something strikingly beautiful about them, isn’t there? As for clematis, I’m such a fan. Currently I have about nine varieties (all white forms) in the tiny Matchbox garden and three in our big garden. The big garden is prone to wind-damage, so they aren’t really suited, sadly.